Friday, December 29, 2006

license to ill

Did I mention that Paige is now a licensed driver? She took her test on the 19th, and what a freaking nightmare. Wayne and I are so irresponsible sometimes.Things we didn't remember we needed until we were out the door and on our way to the test:

Current vehicle registration. Wayne's registration expired late November, and he still hadn't renewed it. My van has a current registration but old tabs. We have license plate covers, and we are too lazy to remove them in order to apply the new year tab.

Current insurance card. Our card expired on 12/2/2006.

Paige's Driver's Ed certificate

Needless to say, it was a frantic 45 minutes prior to testing. We drove separately. While Paige and I drove to the department of licensing, Wayne got the tabs, headed back to the house to print off a new insurance card. I called him as he was leaving our development and asked him togo back and get the damn driver's ed certificate.

He made it to the DoL 10 minutes before her test. Yea!

She goes out back to wait for the tester, who is about 25 minutes late, and the tester won't test Paige because the tabs aren't current.

Wayne didn't put the new tabs on once he renewed the registration. DoL lady came in and told me our vehicle is "not good." I explained that the reg is current and all we have to do is put the little sticker on to be good to go.

"No. You can be on stand-by at 1pm."

This was at 12:15, and she told Paige she was cutting into her lunch hour.

Wayne went out back and broke the damn license plate cover (no wrench on hand to remove it the right way) and applied the stickers. The tester, who is your stereotypical gruff female DoL worker, was out back on her umpteenth cig.

Needless to say, we waited until 1pm.

At 1pm, a different person came out to test, and he was really nice. Paige misplaced her permit within the 45 minutes between the first and second test, but he was okay with it. The test took 5 minutes, and she passed with an 88%.

Then we had to hunt for the lost permit. Paige never left the car from the beginning of the first test, when she gave the DoL lady her permit until the end of the second test. We think the DoL lady had it on her clipboard, but it didn't matter. Paige didn't need it anymore because she was, at that point, licensed to drive!

Afterwards, she immediately went to her dad's.

She came back this Tuesday, and she has driven only a little bit. We have no insurance on her right now-- Tuesday we will. She is going to cost us over $200/mo. more on our insurance. We need to get her a beater vehicle that we can get just liability on and that won't completely inconvenience us if she totals it.

The first night she drove off on her own, Wayne was sick with anxiety. He was literally throwing up and dry-heaving. I was excited; he was ill. Can you see how we handle these things differently? I am so happy to not have to chauffeur her around anymore-- she's my high-maintenance kid, as far as "take me here; take me there" goes. He's ill over the idea of her out there driving, the cost of insurance, gas, etc. I say, let her get a damn job! He's not so on-board with that idea. I am all for it. Let the girl gain a work ethic and learn the value of money while helping to off-set the cost of her growing independence.

Ummmm... what else is happening here?

Oh, I start a class in 10 days and I have ONE couple? What is up with that? I had a TON of calls, and they all fell through. If I only have one couple, I will cancel the class. I cannot teach for just one couple. I've done it before, and it was a great couple, but they just didn't get the full value of the class.

Also, I keep thinking I need to get a real job. You know: clocking in, time cards, paid a regular wage kind of job. I get nauseous just thinking about it because I haven't had that kind of a job since 1998. My neighbor had a baby in July, and she is thinking about going back to work. I entertained the idea of possibly doing childcare for them. I don't know. I think I need a more real job than that. It's just that I know that I know how to take care of babies. It's my comfort zone. Ugh. This is just stressing me out, so I'm going to stop now.

4 comments:

Renae!Yes, I definitely look back fondly on my time at Rainbow Lodge. Is Dave still running it? I wonder whatever happened to Dick and Arlene. I know at least one of them died like a decade+ ago, right?

I don't know who runs Rainbow Lodge, but I told my mom she should work there *in part* because I thought they'd let her take home left overs. I miss the orange chicken. I've fantasized about letting myself in to raid their refrigerator. It's not B& E if the door isn't locked.

ok so like I tried to leave this comment a hundred times so now it will be much shorter. Miss you. Congrats to Paige. I had a hard time going back to work, but it has actually been fun. Of course I am just a part timer....